Question: Can cancer cells be identifiable as male or female, based on the fact that they can reproduce?

Alexis Barr answered on 19 Jun 2013:

We can identify cancer cells as being male or female but not based on the fact that they reproduce. All cancer cells will reproduce whether they are male or female. Cancer cells come from normal, healthy cells by mutation in their DNA. This means that cancer cells will be the same sex as the person they are growing in.

If cancer cells have been taken out of the patient and you want to know whether they are male of female – you can look at the chromosomes in the nucleus. Males have “XY” chromsomes and females have “XX” chromosomes. You can easily tell the difference between these by looking down the microscope.